I may be a tad neurotic when it comes to severe weather, especially if tornado warnings are involved.
Unfortunately my neuroses brings out the inner Jim Cantore in my girls. When hubby dropped off Miss C at indoor soccer practice last night she apparently ran into the gym like a town crier, excitedly shouting, “There’s A TORNADO WARNING FOR TONIGHT!”
Any way, all was calm at bedtime so it was business as usual. Shortly after midnight, however, an ominous thunder clap woke me up. Did I also mention I’m a light sleeper?
Remembering the predicted bad weather I sat up in bed and then trudged to the den with Jack the dog on my heels. I fumbled for the remote and turned on our local weather to see a massive weather front headed our way:
OK so this is really from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, but you get the picture (Blog credit, Misterdavid.typepad.com)
Cue EPIC STORM OF DEATH. The weather forecaster was dropping terms like favorable conditions, touchdowns and safe place.
Crap…how could I sleep now?
I settled down on to my safe place, the couch, and waited for the pitter patter of small feet on hardwood floors but no one else in the house seemed to be waking up. Minutes passed. I may or may not have started to become bitter about everyone else in the house and their PEACEFUL SLUMBER. It was just me, the dog, and the local weather radar of eminent doom and all its colorful glory. I decided to monitor the situation since there was no way in hell I could sleep.
About a half hour later the tornado siren at the nearby fire station went off and I went back and forth between watching the local weather radar coverage and reading local updates on Twitter and Facebook where people were hunkered down and in wait and see mode, like me. The wind and rain picked up for about 10 minutes and then it was eerily silent. And then, according to our local weather coverage, our part of town was in the clear. Unfortunately I was now WIDE AWAKE at half past freak out o’clock.
It’s gonna be a long evening.
p.s. Current earworm – Sexy And I Know It (although I’m sleepy and I know it as in, “hey look at that sofa, hey look at that sofa, hey look at that sofa…I conk out.”)
Ick! You have every right to be totally worried. There are things not to worry about, but this time is was a proper thing to do. Glad that your family was able to be peaceful and sleep through it with you on watch.
I hate middle of the night tornado warnings. I worked at Vanderbilt University when the big tornado hit downtown Nashville in 1998 so I know what damage tornadoes can do.
Hopefully I’ll catch up on my sleep tonight!
Your mom
wishes she could write
as colorful as you do 🙂
I slept through it all
and I might have blown away.
We are so cut from the same cloth!! 🙂
Why does it always happen at night? Hubs can sleep through just about anything while I’m up watching the radar. Here in Huntsville it’s just a way of life I guess.